Oracle sees India market catching up

The year that's almost over saw a first for Oracle India. The parent company's annual international technology and applications conference included India.

This was an indication that the market for large databases and the software applications used to pull information from them is poised to grow in India.

The larger companies have begun to set up data centres to look for reporting beyond the mere financial. Hence, the year may have seen a relational databases market begin to emerge in the country.

Oracle showcased its latest suite of applications, E-Biz 11i.10, in Mumbai as part of a series of such shows worldwide. It culminated in a mega conference and technology expo in California this month.

The series, called Oracle Open World, brought together Oracle's channel partners, potential customers and technology experts to discuss what 11i.10 was all about "" from its industry"" specific functionalities to RFID management.

Commercial launch of the software applications suite is expected soon, says Shekhar Dasgupta, managing director, Oracle India. E-Biz 11i.10's new features, thrown open to scrutiny in Europe before it was shown here, represents an update on the last version 11i.9, released in July 2003.

The company has increased industry-specific features, especially for sectors like manufacturing, healthcare, government and supply chain management, including capability to handle radio frequency identification (RFID) applications, says Dasgupta.

Over the next five to 10 years, the gap between Oracle's software development interests in India, driven by global demand, and what it sells in India will reduce.

"India is a growing market for us," he says. With 11i.10, Dasgupta says, business intelligence will be easier to get.

For example, in the manufacturing sector, it will help manage inventories better and track channel partners efficiently, among other things. Compliance with regulations will be easier to establish, for instance, in the pharmaceutical sector.

"Cart management, ensuring the right medicines reached the right bed and patient is a potential opportunity" in corporate hospitals that can afford such software. "Even large corporate hospitals don't have the system in place."

In the government sector, two new programmes, Oracle Procurement Contracts and Oracle Services Procurement, will help administer processes better. For instance, the applications will allow users to include services such as temporary help, which would otherwise be done on an ad hoc basis.

RFID management is part of a warehouse management application. Large retailers like Wal Mart, are driving the market for using semiconductor chips that emit radio frequency signals to track shipments down to individual units.

They have a 'mandate' to its top vendors to implement the technology, Most commercial development however is still at the level of managing inventories and supply chains better. E-Biz 11i.10 is equipped to handle some of this.

Forrester Research, a market consultant, says, to implement RFID for managing the way products moved from factories to the shop shelf, more middleware had to be developed.

E-Biz 11i.10 also helps its user to keep track of the connection between what an application did and why it did it, efficiently. This allows for faster rectification of mistakes.